Time for Africa!

We read Oh No, George! -Mihir

Today we wrote our own stories about discipline after reading Oh No, George! -Aiden

We learned about the African elephant. They dig up roots to eat with their tusks. -Lilliana

Baby elephants have baby tusks and they fall out just like our teeth do. -Owen

We read a book called Little Elephant's Trunk. -Alexis

There are different teams now. Our teams are Lions, Cheetahs, Elephants, Giraffes, and Ostriches. -Antonio

We celebrated Dr. Seuss this week. We did a Cat and the Hat math job during workshop. -Noora

We learned that there are different species of elephants. We are learning about the African elephant. -Jacob

We did Kahoot. It had questions about the world map. -Oscar

We learned new chants. My favorite is the chameleon one, because I like when we say "I'm a... chameleon!" -Krishelle

Last week we used an app called Chatterpix to make animals talk. We made our animals from Europe say facts. -Sophia M.

We made a new world map. It shows where savannas and deserts are. -Logan

We started "Polar Bear March." We get to adopt a polar bear if we walk to school the most. -Brielle

We learned a new word, matriarch. The matriarch is the female leader of a family or group. Elephant groups are led by a matriarch. She is the oldest and biggest. -Lucia

One our new literacy awards that we can earn
for showing respect, making good decisions,
or solving problems!

We did a new blue chart. We are working on discipline. Discipline is when you have excellent self-control all the time. -Savannah

We brainstormed times that we showed discipline after we read Oh No, George! George showed discipline when he was on his walk. -Alexia

We watched a video with a fact family song. It has the same tune as the continents and oceans chant from the beginning of first grade. -Ella

A fact family has 3 numbers, the mama and two children. If we are being scientific, we call the children offspring. If we are being mathematicians, the mama is called the sum or the whole, and the babies are called parts or addends. You can use a fact family to make related facts, which are math facts with the same 3 numbers. There are two addition facts and two subtraction facts. -Jonah

We learned a word called savanna. A savanna is a warm, grassy place with scattered trees. Elephants live in the savanna. -Henry

We learned about two types of trees in Africa. One is called an acacia tree and one is called a baobab tree. -Sam

We wrote on sticky notes about what we know about African animals. -Carson

We have a new inquiry chart with lots of information and lots of questions. -Sophia D.

We learned about the African elephant and it took two days to finish the whole chart. We didn't do smart cards on the elephant or the world map yet. When we first did the map, Miss Kloczko forgot to label the continents, but we reminder her the next day! -Ginger

European Hedgehog Experts

Jan Brett taught us how to draw a hedgehog. -Ella

We got to read with our buddies. -Logan

We read a book and it was called Apple Trouble. -Brielle

After we read Apple Trouble, we wrote an opinion piece about it. -Alexia

One day we made a list of things that could get stuck on a hedgehog. -Sophia M.

We wrote an Apple Trouble story of our own. We got to change what gets stuck on the hedgehog. We used the lists we made in our notebooks. -Mihir

We wrote our opinion about if we would like to have a pet hedgehog. -Alexis

Hedgehogs have really bad eyesight. -Sophia D.

We had lunch when 4th graders had lunch. We had to have super stamina after lunch every day. -Oscar

We wrote our favorite words from this book called Owl Moon. -Antonio

This week was Kindness Week. -Lucia

We learned the word defend. It means to keep something safe. -Owen

We learned the word for baby hedgehog. It is hoglet. -Noora

We learned the word nocturnal. Owls are nocturnal, because they are awake at night and sleep during the day. -Savannah

I learned that the hedgehog can roll into a ball. -Gino

I learned that hedgehogs have thousands of spikes. -Krishelle

We wrote friendly letters to show kindness. Our class wrote 27 letters. -Sam

For our America book, two weeks in a row it had the Statue of Liberty. This week we got to draw people inside. -Jacob

When hedgehogs are born, they are super duper pink. -Jonah

We learned that hedgehogs stay with their mothers for 4-7 weeks. -Aiden

Welcome Back!

We are learning about the leopard seal. -Brielle

We read a book called What I Saw in the Teacher's Lounge. -Alexis

We learned what solitary means. It means a person or an animal that likes to be alone. -Jacob

We wrote new year's resolutions. -Krishelle

We picked new numbers on our teams, because some of us forgot our old ones! -Logan

We learned that a resolution is a promise to yourself to try to do something. -Noora

We learned that leopard seals are solitary. -Mihir

We learned that penguins are not solitary. They are social! -Savannah

We learned that leopard seals live in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. -Lilliana

Miss Kloczko read Tackylocks and the Three Bears to us. -Ginger

One of my new year's resolutions is to play more Pokemon Go. One of my other resolutions is to not ask to go to McDonald's anymore. -Jonah

One of my new year's resolutions is to stay healthy and not eat cookies for dinner. -Aiden

We learned what pinniped means. Pinnipeds are animals that uses flippers for feet. Two of my new year's resolutions are to stay healthy and work out. -Gino

It was raining and I brought my magnetic guys for recess. -Oscar

We watched a video about Mount Rushmore. -Carson

We got to read to self! -Sophia M.

We learned what frigid means. It means very, very cold, like today. -Owen

Yesterday my team predicted that solitary meant solid. -Ella

We learned a new strategy. We learned how to make a ten. When the answer is going to be more than ten, you can use this strategy. -Sam

We practiced labeling the world map with continents and oceans. -Alexia

First graders, can you point out all
of the continents and oceans for your family?

One of my resolutions was to not fight with my sister. -Antonio

One of my resolutions was to try to get a Nintendo. I also wrote a long story today during writing time. -Henry

We wrote about the teacher's lounge and and funny things that might happen in there. -Sophia D.

We had buddies today and we did artist trading cards together. -Lucia

What is a cetacean?

It is now December and it is getting chilly, both outside and inside our classroom. We are now studying the coldest place on Earth, Antarctica! Maybe your first grader brought home some new whale-related knowledge. :)

We learned about two types of whales, the orca whale and the blue whale. We also learned some new chants about Antarctica, and we reviewed the world map. Ask your first grader to show you what the equator is.

This week we talked about the relationship between addition and subtraction and practiced writing related facts. If you know that 4+3=7, you also know that 7-3=4. When you add two parts, you get a whole. If you start with the whole, and you take away one of the parts, you get the other part. Such an important math concept! (If you want to practice at home, print out the game below-- all you need to play is two dice!) This wraps up our subtraction unit, and we'll dive back into addition next week. Now that we have covered addition and subtraction concepts, we are ready to learn strategies for adding numbers with sums up to 20, such as counting on and using a number line.

This week, we had our first "Magical Monday" and we were able to write about ANYTHING we wanted. Perfect timing after a week-long break. Lots of us wrote about our Thanksgiving Break adventures!

When good writers write, they don't just use any old words— writers are very purposeful with their language. We read Steve Jenkins's Move, which had tons of amazing verbs, all related to animals' movements. Then, very quickly before Workout Wednesday, we made a list together of verbs that we might choose to use in future writing, and we had a chance to write some of our favorites down in our notebooks.

We also read one of my favorite books, How Deep is the Sea? Almost everyone in our class loved it, too (according to the opinion pieces we wrote).

Today we got to watch a short clip from Finding Nemo and while watching, we made many connections to what we are learning in science. The video featured a blue whale AND krill. Watch the full video below, and hopefully your first grader will notice one more thing we learned about. (Hint: it looks a little bit like the bottom part of a broom!)

We had two guest readers this week, Mr. M, who read Lost and Found, and on Friday we had a visitor from a place with bears and lots of snow...Truckee! My grandmother came to read The Mitten! You can sign up on our volunteer schedule if you'd like to be one of our mystery readers!

Some pictures from Workshop, Reader's Workshop, and Fun Friday:

Thanks for reading! Leave us a comment if you have a minute! Parents, check out What's Coming Up? to see what our plans for next week are!